Equesrian wins scrimmage

The University of Georgia equestrian team defeated a club team from Berry College 1990-1844 in a scrimmage held Sunday at the Animal Science Arena.

For Georgia it marked the beginning of the new dual meet competition format, which is a departure from the Intercollegiate Horseshow Association under whose auspices they competed last year.

"Today was really special and unique. It was our first time in the new competition format and the first time for a lot of our riders to really compete at this level," Georgia head coach Meghan Boenig said. "We saw a lot of people take a step up to the plate. We gave some new faces some chances, which I think they did very well with."

The day ended with Georgia just edging Berry by 10 points, 475.92-465.16, in the Equitation over Fences event.

Georgia began the meet showing in Western Equitation, topping Berry 579-543 on the event.

The Bulldogs dominated the Hunt Seat Equitation event, beating Berry by a margin of 710-603. Georgia team captain, senior Erin Hernandez, won the Seed 1 class with a strong 73, while Berry's Kelly Eatman topped the Seed 2 class with a 71.

The only event Georgia dropped to the Vikings was reining, as Berry slipped past 233-226 in the discipline. The Bulldogs' Morgan Strauss won the Seed 1 class with a score of 68, while freshman Anna Hitchborn scored a 55 to tie with Berry's Amy Humble for first place in the Seed 2 class.

"The things we really have to work on for next week is our consistency over fences and our reining," Boenig said.